


crack of the whip (blood in the cut)

by tamedbanshee



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, Strong Haruno Sakura, i feel like t&i is a goldmine of weird hi jinks and shenanigans, in the art of cracking people like eggs, no beta we die like men, playing fast and loose with canon, sakura getting a hands on education, sakura's just having a good time, there's not really a whole lotta plot if im honest, torture and interrogation, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2020-04-06 04:13:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19055008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamedbanshee/pseuds/tamedbanshee
Summary: Give them a bit of experience, Mizuki had said.Let them get a taste of what they might want to do with their career, he’d insisted.Iruka stared down at the file - Haruno Sakura, assigned to Torture and Interrogation....What the fuck.





	1. Chapter 1

Give them a bit of experience, Mizuki had said.

Let them get a taste of what they might want to do with their career, he’d insisted.

Iruka glowered at the papers in front of him, eyes narrowed with the same level of focus a surgeon had with their patient. All the paperwork was completed, perfectly and immaculately, every single one of his students allocated. 

It was to no one's surprise that Shikamaru had been accepted into Intelligence. Someone had made the poor decision to give Naruto to the Saboteurs and Demolition. Hinata and Sasuke were graciously accepted to shadow the Council, a proper placement for the heir and heiress. 

Kiba was working with the Trackers. Shino and Ino were placed into the greenhouses. 

There were too many Clan children and too little places, there was always going to be one which ended up scraping the bottom of the barrell. 

Iruka stared down at the file - _Haruno Sakura, assigned to Torture and Interrogation._

_...What the fuck._

* * *

Mebuki blinked at the letter in her hands. 

"What the fuck?" she hissed, ready to storm down to the Academy and demand to know whose bright idea it was to let an eight-year-old into the underbelly of Konoha. Maybe she'd grab that no-good teacher and shake him until his brains came out of his ears.  

It was either Iruka or she'd go straight to Morino Ibiki himself. 

Kizashi watched his wife as she stormed and paced the length of their kitchen.

(He wasn't sure who'd win a fight between Morino Ibiki or his wife on a rampage.)

"Kizashi! Look at this!  _What the fuck!?"_

* * *

 

Haruno Sakura was in the wrong place. 

"I'm here for the apprenticeship?"

The woman at the front desk was intimidating. Very tall and imposing, she was decorated with a number of scars- the kind which her cousins came home with. The kind that they didn't like to speak about. Maybe Sakura would have found her scarier if she didn't look as confused as Sakura felt- part of her hoping to every deity there was that she was in the wrong place.  

She waited patiently as the woman looked through her well-organised stack of paperwork, sifting away and grimacing when she found the application submitted by the Academy. A small badge and a slip of paper were slid across to the small girl, who took it hesitantly with a disappointed droop. 

"You need to go down two flights of stairs, down the corridor and it's the third door on your right," when she leaned forward to gesture towards the doors Sakura needed to go through-  _Sakura read her name tag as Hatsu Minoru_. It was hard to pretend that she  _wasn't_ crestfallen at the fantasy that it was all a mix-up, that she was actually supposed to be in the greenhouses with Ino. It sounded so fun, making poisons and learning what plants are useful. Still, her mama had taught her manners. 

"Thank you!"

Minoru smiled back, waving helplessly as she watched the brat go through the doors which she'd pointed out earlier. The correct ones which would lead her to Konoha's Underbelly. Hatsu Minoru,  _a trained ANBU assassin_ , blinked as soon as she was out of sight- dread beginning to roil in her stomach as the smile fell from her face. Thinking about that poor kid with all of Konoha's psychos. 

“ _What the **actual** fuck,_” she whispered.


	2. Chapter 2

There was one reason and one reason only that Morino Ibiki even  _allowed_ apprenticeships. 

( _The fact that the Hokage ordered him to open a spot for an apprentice being disregarded._ )

The fresh meat was to do the grunt work. 

Free labour, it was plain and simple. 

Despite the spot being there every year, it wasn't always filled. For the past two or three years, it'd been left empty. The classes were smaller and no one in their right mind would let a prominent  _Clan_ child end up in the Underbelly. The position was left open every year all the same though as it was 'tradition', apparently. If he didn't, the Sandaime would give him the very same disappointed stare he'd levelled him when he was a genin, having tried to kill his teammates for the umpteenth time. 

( _Minoru didn't hold it against him and admittedly, rather drunkenly, that she'd been a pain in the ass at that age. She did use it as leverage every now and then though when she wanted a day off. Not that he blamed her, it wasn't Ibiki's idea of a holiday being forced to play receptionist whilst taken off the roster due to an injury_.)

This year was supposed to be no different. 

“Excuse me!”

He blinked, looked up from his request form for new _toys_. ( _Read:_ torture equipment.)

Pink.

“Um… my name’s Haruno Sakura, I’m here for the apprenticeship?”

She was pink.

Perhaps he'd been around the chloroform for too long? Maybe it was a hallucination. Ibiki sifted though his thoughts and remembered the odd encounter with Iruka a few nights ago. By encounter, he meant when Iruka had stormed into his office and began pointing and yelling and preaching about  _corruptiing the youth_. Not that he'd really been listening because the next thing he remembers was nearly seven hours later when he ended up buying umeboshi with Anko at their convenience store at three in the morning. 

_Why had they needed-?_

Not the point.

The brat barely came part his hip when he stood to his full height, her chin jutted out and her badge securely pinned to her burgundy dress. It was like a sprite, the kind which children were told about for bedtime stories and IBiki wondered what fresh hell he'd been placed in - the rest of the kids weren't like this! 

( _It'd only be after introductions were made and she was sent home that Anko and himself combed through her Academy class. A fresh wave of burning anger sparked within them when they realised she was the sacrificial lamb as the Clan children had taken the safer options. Better the daughter of two relatively unknown and retired genin than an heir or heiress, **right**?)_

The longer he stared her down, the more she quivered. 

_Like a chihuahua._

“You sure you’re cut out to be a Shinobi, kid?” He sneered because he had no patience for weaklings. 

"You sure you're supposed to be that ugly?" It's said quietly but with a lot more bite than a little pink sprite was supposed to have. Even if she did blush from her neck upwards when she realised that she'd actually said that out loud. A hand comically slapped over her mouth and she feared he'd march her out of there and back to Iruka-sensei.  _The shame!_

He sounded like Ami though when she told her that she'd never be good enough. 

Ino told her that she shouldn't put up with that. 

So Sakura didn't put up with that kind of talk from  _anyone_ anymore. Not Ami, not the big kids and certainly not her new sensei. 

Ibiki started to cackle, loud and bellowing, the kind which echoed in the hallways. Menacing and the rest of his colleagues within earshot, shuddered at the sound because they knew that it never meant _anything_ good.

“Not bad kid, _not bad_ ,” he’s smiling and Sakura’s not sure if that’s supposed to make him more or less scary? Still, at least he isn’t yelling at her, that’s always good. “C’mon, I’ll introduce y’to the rest of the team and we’ll go from there.”

Shuffling after him, she follows him down the hallway like a bumbling pink fuzzy duckling; he actually has to slow down a few times to make sure he doesn’t lose her on the way to the staff room. His long-legged gait too fast for her.

They paused outside the door.

His chakra was hidden and hers was negligible, comparable to a mouse.

“Ready?”

Sakura blinked up at him, a little pink in the cheeks and biting her lip nervously.

“ALRIGHT, FUCKERS,” Sakura squeaked when he kicked open the door, soothed a little when there were several yelps and a distinctive scream in the room. One man falling out of his chair and three kunai lodged into the doorframe. “Fall in!”

“- the actual fuck, Ibiki?”

“Aw, c’mon, I just started my break!”

“My ramen’s gonna go cold!”

Ibiki glanced down, realising that he kid was trying to shy away from the sudden spotlight thrust upon her. Her small frame lingering behind his long legs, gripping the material of his trench coat. She was probably the same age as Inoichi’s brat though she was a lot quieter, he’d give her that. Still, it was no good for her to be hiding from the people she'd be spending time with over the six months; he patted her head lightly but used it to force her to separate from him, dragging his team's attention onto the _fresh meat_ he'd presented them.

"we've got a new recruit, the brats gonna be with us for the next six months, from sunrise until sunset," Ibiki barked, eyes darting to every one of his godforsaken team and grimacing when Anko simply  _waggled_ her fingers in a mocking wave. "You know the drill,  _say hi,_ squirt."

“Hi,” Sakura waved.

Anko was crouched in front of her immediately, bringing her into the cradle of her arms and pinching her cheek simultaneously. Sakura sent him a panicked look which was, by all means, probably warranted. His colleague continuing to coo over her as she forced the girls head to rest against her breastbone.

"How precious!"

"She's got promise," Ibiki murmured because anyone that could call him ugly to his face had balls of steel.

Sakura tried not to beam at that.

Still, there was a distinct tilt to Anko's chin and the way her cat-like eyes slide over their apprentices head to meet his. Very few people could say that Ibiki had  _complimented_ them and Anko remembered a similar remark being made about herself before she was thrust upon the department after her mentors...  _abandonment_. 

"Squirt, this is Anko," he didn't bother to try and separate the woman from her because he knew that if he asked, she'd no doubt kidnap her and refuse to ever let her go. "Don't listen to anything she says."

“ _Hey!_ ”

“You have Mozuku and Shinobu,” he gestured to the men sat at the table,  the one on the right was the man who'd fallen out of his chair. He adjusts his glasses and smiled at her whilst the other looked severely unimpressed by the entire situation.

Sakura’s not sure which is Mozuku and which is Shinobu but she’s not going to tell them that.

“Hello Sakura-chan,” Inoichi greeted her with a smile.

The long blonde hair was familiar from the many dinners they'd spent together, ignorant to the mans burgeoning despair and rage at such a sweet and innocent girl being sent to their domain. 

“Hi, Yamamanaka-san!”

If Anko wasn't keeping her before, her chirpy and sweet attitude was all it took. Her face brought away from Anko's chest, their cheeks suddenly squished together as the woman glared up at Ibiki stubbornly. 

“No, we can’t keep her forever," he didn't even have to look at her to know what she was asking or  _demanding_. 

“ _Spoilsport!”_

He left his staff room in chaos, Anko losing interest quite quickly once Ibiki had left and no longer there for her to bother. Instead, she abandoned Sakura to demand the rest of Shinobu’s ramen that had, _in fact_ , gone cold. Inoichi ignored them with well-practised ease and went back to his scroll, the update from their borders from Suna. A few missing-nin from the area were shackled after breaching their borders and causing havoc.

Ibiki checked to make sure that Sakura, who'd been left dizzy by the flurry of activity, was following after him. 

“You’ll get used to them,” he offered with the briefest touch of sympathy.

Sakura stared up at him blankly.

“Have you?” she deadpanned.


	3. Chapter 3

“Okay kiddo! First day means y’gotta learn the rules!”

Sakura glanced up as the door was flung open, her attention dragged away from her Sannin colouring book which Mozuku-sempai had given her. At first, she'd wanted to insist that she was  _much_ too old for that kind of thing- but his eager expression was sweet. Plus, it was very relaxing. 

She'd been waiting for Ibiki-sensei, he'd told her that  _he_ was doing to show her the ropes for her first day. Instead, it was Anko stood in front of her table in the staff room- with a grin a little too wide and a little too toothy for it to mean anything good. It looked a lot like the smile Ino wore whenever her friend was up to something  _particularly_ devious. 

“Rules?”

“First rule!” Anko shouted as if she hadn’t heard Sakura at all. “Anko is _always_ right!”

Sakura frowned.

“Second rule! Everything that’s said or done in T&I, _stays in T &I, _capeesh?”

“Capshishe!” Sakura could agree to that one at least, nodding and looking very determined even as her tongue got caught on the word in the midst of her nerves.

“That’s freakin’ adorable,” _deep breath Anko, keep it together._ “Rule number three-!”

“Rule number three is _talk shit_ , get **hit**.”

One second Anko was stood there and the next, she’d _vanished_. 

It was like the cartoon which Sakura watched on a Saturday morning, all that was missing was the comical cloud of smoke that was suspiciously shaped like Anko. 

Sakura stared at the spot which her sempai had once stood but... maybe it was better to just carry on without questioning these kinds of things too much? At least, that's how it felt. 

Ibiki-sensei looked frustrated. 

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Sakura thought he looked like Iruka-sensei whenever he had to deal with Kiba or Naruto. He took a deep breath, resisting the urge to track down his colleague because so help him, _when he got his hands on her-_

No. Now wasn't the time for that. 

( _Later_.)

Ibiki stared down at Sakura with an arched brow. 

“When did you get here, kid?”

“Hours ago,” Sakura told him solemnly, her cherubic features suddenly grave. “Minoru-san walked me in”

"Of course she did," his old genin teammate was only playing secretary, no doubt bored out of her mind. At least that stopped Anko from latching onto the brat as soon as she walked through the doors, for some reason, Anko was scared  _shitless_ of Minoru. He'd never know what went on between the two of them. “C’mon I got your uniform ready.”

“I get a uniform?”

“You’re getting a uniform.”

Sakura followed him, abandoning her half-coloured slug with an insatiable curiosity. Ino was made to wear a cute apron and pink gloves when she worked in the greenhouses, was it like that? 

_It was not_. 

It was a ( _tiny_ ) dark trench coat, similar to the ones which Anko and Ibiki wore on the daily. 

“You can wear whatever you want underneath it, just make sure it’s black sandals,” Ibiki told her quietly, watching her pull it on. The corner of his gnarled and scarred lips pulling into a small smirk as he watched her spin around in it. 

It was so roomy!

And there were _pockets!_

Sakura happily shoved her hands into said pockets, grinning to herself as she swung from side to side. The material was soft and light enough that with the warmer weather it wouldn't bother her- still thick enough to ward off a sudden chill though. 

“Everyone wears one ‘round here,” Ibiki explained, pulling on the collar of his own as an example. 

She was smaller than the other apprentices they'd been stuck with, the others were taller and leaner. Her head of pink hair barely reached his hip and Ibiki wondered, as they strolled towards his office, what he'd have her in the six months she'd be spending there. Obviously lifting the heavier materials was out of the question,  _maybe he'd have her cleaning the weapons out fo the vault?_

His thoughtful hum ended when he realised the girl had stopped dead a few paces back. 

Halfway down the corridor and peering curiously through one of the open doors. Which never boded well because an open door led to a realm of possibilities. Thankfully, it was just an empty interrogation room- the light was left of but there was the distinct smell of bleach lingering in the air. Mozuku had finished with the spy from Kumo about an hour ago, Ibiki knew that the report and recording of his session were no doubt already on his desk. 

“C’mon kid.”

"Oba-san used to tell me stories about T&I," Sakura told him quietly, her eyes were wide and she was staring at the chair fearfully. "Is this where the bad people go?"

Ibiki quickly notes that the grandmother she's referring to was her mother's side.  _Civillian, merchants-_ not exactly brimming with good thoughts about the Shinobi profession from what little he could gather. No doubt Sakura had been told the same stories which most civilians did to scare their children from a life as a Shinobi. 

"We deal with a lot of bad folks, yeah," he said quietly. "We stop people who want to hurt Konohagakure and everyone in it."

"Is there a lot of them?" Sakura asked with the kind of naivety that only a child born in peace could have. 

"There's a lot more than there appear to be," Ibiki understood that in times of peace, the Academy was a little lax in their approach but he'd make sure to toughen her up. This girl was gonna have some grit to her by the time she was sent back. "To serve Konoha, you're going to be helping too- to fight against the threats to Konoha and to serve."

Sakura hummed.

“Will I be bringing people here?”

_Well, depending on how well we train you up, some won't make it off the battlefield- but that was for another time._

“Maybe kid, _maybe_.”

* * *

 “Here y’go, brat,” Shinobu-sempai is quick to catch her before she left for the day. Her hands smell like polish after having spent most of the morning and afternoon sharpening and polishing the blades which T&I used on a daily basis. It was all locked away in the  _vault_ , as they called it. 

Her cleaning all done under the careful supervision of Inoichi lest she cut herself by accident. 

( _It was originally supposed to be Anko but they all quickly agreed that it was a terrible idea, ignoring how the woman squawked at the insult_.)

“What is it?” Sakura grunted as the textbook is dropped into her arms. It was thick and heavy and _ohgoditweighedatonne._

“Homework!” She’s tempted to glare at how happy the man sounded about it. “Ibiki wants you to get a head start on learning about the human body, the nervous system and the brain specifically.”

“That’s so much!”

“Don’t worry brat, we’re not expecting you to learn overnight,” Shinobu is quick to reassure her, ruffing her hair and waving as she trotted up the stairs. As soon as she made it through the doors, Inoichi popped his head out from his office. 

“Did Sakura-chan just leave?”

“Mm,” his eyes narrowed on the cheerful blonde, head tilted. “What’s got you in such a good mood?”

“She may or may not have sharpened the _corkscrew_ ,” Inoichi grinned guiltily because as much as he relied on his kekkai genkai, he was a member of Torture and Interrogation _through and through_. He enjoyed the old fashioned things every now and then, the tricks and tools of the trade. 

“No _way_ , nobodys willingly touched that after what you did to that missing nin-”

“It wasn’t _that_ bad.”

“Inoichi, _it made Anko squeamish_.”

“...so it was _a little bad_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, very short. I always hate starting these things off but! Sakura beginning to learn from them does come later because how the heck do you start teaching T&I techniques to a kid? It's mostly just building on what she knows and Ibiki and Anko creating a little monster. Besides, I have a bit more to work with and I just needed this part out of the way. It will be snippets of her time in T&I and will be relatively short in length, enjoy!


	4. Chapter 4

“Which part of the brain relates to a person's balance and coordination?”

“The… _cerebellum_?”

“Good one monkey!” Anko cheered, happily throwing a small chocolate at her self-proclaimed protege. Sakura eagerly tried to catch it in her mouth and the two of them giggled to themselves which it bounced off her nose. Still, she grabbed it and added it to the pile of goodies she’d amassed over Anko-senpai's pop quiz. “Next question, which part of the brain is involved with interpreting _pain_?”

“The parietal lobe.”

“You’re such a good monkey!” Anko couldn’t resist leaning over and ruffling her hair, messing up her little pigtails entirely. 

The nicknames had been developing throughout the day, Anko had originally started the morning referring to Sakura as her ‘ _little duckling_ ’ and had gone through a litany of animals before settling on ‘monkey’ for the past few hours. It seemed to be her favourite. 

“How many did I get wrong?” 

“A few but don’t worry kid, we’re not expecting you to know all of this straight away,” as loud and brash as Anko could be, she smiled softly and put their apprentice’s mind at ease. “Knowing this stuff, the parts of the human body and brain is important, y’know why?”

“Because everyone’s is nearly the same?”

“How did a monkey like you get so smart?” Anko teased, this time reaching to pinch her cheeks which Sakura fended off with a loud whine. 

_“Not the cheeks!”_

“But they’re so pinchable!”

“Ibiki-sensei!”

“ _Ibiki! She won’t let me pinch her cheeks!_ ”  


* * *

 

“How many kunai do you have?” Mozuku asked as they stood in the small throwing range, specifically designed for T&I. 

Technically, Ibiki-sensei had asked Sakura to mop the interrogation rooms but Mozuku hadn’t the heart to let her deal with that amount of _gore_ . Not yet. So instead, his hands had landed on her shoulders and directed her to the range, offering to improve her aim and gesturing for Shinobu to get in there _and clean up his own damn mess-_

“One set,” Sakura rolled her shoulders. 

“Well,” he rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh, his eyes flicking from the kid to the small targets set out in front of them. “It’s a start I suppose, d’you keep ‘em sharp at least?”

“Sharpen them before and after I use them,” she recited, proper weapon etiquette having been drilled into her as soon as she’d gotten her hands on the blades. Her cousins, those who held to their samurai roots, wouldn’t dare let their precious baby cousin run off with unsharpened blades. 

“Okay, that’s good,” he knew better than to expect too much, in times of peace things tended to get a little lax. At her age, Mozuku kept an arsenal of weapons on him at all times, nevermind just one set of lousy kunai - _were they not teaching these kids to be prepared at all times?_

Mozuku supposed that in moments of peace, they thought that they didn’t have to. 

Not when they were safe within Konoha’s walls. 

They were so innocent and blissfully ignorant. 

He hated it. 

“Have you thrown your kunai before? Is that a thing you’re allowed to do yet in the Academy?”

Things were very different from his own time in the Academy, Mozuku had never foreseen himself becoming one of those adults who groaned on and on about how things were ‘ _back in my day_ ’ - but here he was. As many comparisons as he could draw to his own Academy experience, he didn’t dare overstep his mark when it came to those who Iruka oversaw. 

The man might not have been her teacher but he was overseeing the entire apprenticeship endeavour and he was scarier than Mozuku cared to admit. Considering he worked with Ibiki, Anko and Inoichi daily. 

It was a _feat_. 

“I practise a lot at home but I’m not very good,” Sakura wasn’t ashamed to admit it because it was one thing to try and fail than to never try at all. What worked for Ino didn’t always work for her, she had to find her way at learning the more physical aspect. 

“We’ll work on that too,” it was something he could help her with, grinning from ear to ear as he turned her to face the targets. “Okay, so what I want you to do is- _remember that bully_ , Amu? Ami? I want you to imagine her face-”  


* * *

  

“Ah, Sakura-chan?” 

She paused at the end of the corridor, glancing back to see Inoichi-senpai sticking his head out of his office. He’d been particularly chipper for most of the day and had thanked her profusely for cleaning the weaponry in the vault the other day. 

“Before you go,” he motioned for her to come closer and Sakura regretted it because as soon as she was within reaching distance, the man dropped yet _another_ thick textbook into her scrambling hands. Sakura grumbled but accepted it, she was considering using the textbooks as weights and build her muscles from the weight of them alone. 

“What’s this for?” 

“It’s an introductory text for basic psychology,” he grinned from ear to ear because this was his area of expertise. As much as his _beloved_ colleagues liked to gripe and complain about it. “If you’re learning about the mind is an _organ_ , then this should go hand in hand with it.”

“This seems like a lot of homework,” she murmured. 

Inoichi considered the two lengthy texts she’d been given and grimaced ever so slightly. 

“It probably is a little much but you have six months with us, we’re not expecting you to learn all of it in a day. This is just a starting point,” he’s quick to reassure, hands twitching in the temptation to ruffle her pastel pink pigtails. Ino never let him touch her hair anymore. He knew that Sakura would level him with the same pouty glare which Anko had received that morning. Her pigtails were still slightly lopsided. 

Instead, he settled on a smile, hands shoved in his pockets to stave off the temptation. “From what your teachers told us, you’re quick to catch on, ask the right sort of questions and you like to _learn_. You can never know too much and knowledge is power these days.”

 _Knowledge is power_. 

It’s not something said often, brute strength is the first choice these days with the flashy Jutsu and the weapons made to battle the gods. Inoichi revelled in the days of subterfuge, of the long term undercover missions, an art which was dimmed after the bingo books started painting targets on peoples backs. Sakura had always felt like being good  _by the books_ was all she could ever do, her parents had little memory of their training and it wasn't like she had a Clan to fall back on. 

“Knowledge is power?” Sakura said quietly. 

“There's strength in knowing things, in knowing how _make_ people give their information to you- and this,” he tapped the book in her arms. “-will help.”

Sakura’s arms tightened around the book. 

“I’ll memorise the whole thing!”

“I’ll hold you to that, Sakura-chan.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, two chapters???? A halloween miracle. 
> 
> Thank you so much for the comments- to answer a common question, Sakura is around 8/9 years old in this story. Her apprenticeship lasts six months so I'm not sure whether her birthday will be part of that or not. I've tweaked the previous chapters, which were written when her age was sort of unknown? Also, Anko???? A+ Older sister and terrifying Auntie material.


	5. Chapter 5

“Ah, Sakura-chan, good morning.”

“Good morning, Minoru-sempai!” Sakura was quick to greet, yanking at the straps of her small bag. “Do you need some help with those papers?”

It was a sweet gesture but the stack was actually  _ the size _ of the girl. 

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Minoru quickly broke off a smaller section for her to carry, she could handle the entire thing by herself but she’d enjoy the company. It also had the upside of trapping Biki into filling out his forms, he couldn’t say no to her from what she’d heard from Inoichi. All she had to do was bat her eyelashes and ask what the paperwork was for and he was stuck.

Sakura grinned, shuffling the papers so they were settled securely in her grip. 

(Minoru noticed her arms were a little leaner, no doubt the lessons which Anko had started - that everyone supervised- were helping her build the muscle that the Academy should’ve been assisting with.)

“How’re you finding it here, Sakura-chan?” 

Since her first day, the utter confusion left behind, it’d been a week or two since she’d began. Minoru rarely had a chance to speak with the young apprentice, she played the role of receptionist and administrator well. It wasn’t pleasant but she was counting down the days before she was allowed back on the roster. 

“I’m learning so much!” There was a jump in her step, jostling the stack and threatening to send a few requisition forms flying. “Why don’t they teach this sort of stuff in the Academy?”

There’s a pause in the conversation as she held the door open for Minoru to pass through - heading down the flights of stairs with a frown. 

“Not a lot of children have the stomach for it,” she had the vaguest idea of what she was being taught but god knows what Anko had let slip in the brief moments Sakura had been left in her company alone. Ibiki was no better though he did have a soft spot for the younger generation, he always had. Minoru remembered him talking frequently about his younger brother when they were on the same genin team. 

They’d lost touch after she’d advanced from their first chūnin exams and he was left with Tokara and another to fill her spot. 

Pursing her lips, she dragged herself from her memories. “Besides, knowing things which your classmates don’t will give you the upper hand, it gives you an edge when you eventually make it out onto the field.”

“Like how Ino-chan knows all about poisons,” Sakura nodded with a grin. 

“Exactly, whilst I don’t exactly agree that you should  _ rely _ on just one skill - it does help,” 

“What’re you good at, Minoru-sempai?”

“Hm, I suppose sebon and genjutsu are my forte,” bland and vague explanations, her Bingo book description wouldn’t exactly stop there. “What about you, Sakura-chan?”

“I don’t know, I don’t think I’m particularly good at anything yet.”

“You’re young, you’ve got a lot of time to choose what you want to study further - whether it be strategies or demolition or interrogation.”

The two of them paused outside the filing room, Minoru quickly running through the hand signs necessary to be let in and disabling the traps laden within the walls. 

“Looking into some medical knowledge would be a good place to start, to know the body is to know your enemy,” Minoru carried on as they placed the papers in their appropriate piles, a few still clutched in Sakura’s hands. Those were the urgent ones that Ibiki needed to be cornered with. “Like pressure points.”

“Huh?” Sakura trotted after her, lest she was sealed into the filing room. The two heading towards Ibiki’s office at a meandering pace. 

“Well, there’re a lot of pressure points in the body,” Minoru explained quietly, a small smile curling her mouth as she watched Sakura instinctively dodge the trick tile in the floor - booby-trapped with enough sebon to make someone a pin cushion. “If you use them in certain ways, they can do a lot of things - you could paralyze your opponent, knock them out or even create the illusion that they’d died.”

“ _ Woah _ ,” Sakura whispered, eyes wide. 

“Ah, I’ll have to bring you a study guide, I went against a Hyuuga in… one of my exams,” the negligible pause, she couldn’t exactly tell Sakura  _ which _ exam since she didn’t want to scare the poor girl with stories from her early ANBU days. “Hyuuga are… quite brutal and efficient in their Gentle First technique.”

“Hinata-san’s Clan?”

“I forgot you were in the same class as the Hyuuga heiress.”

“She’s sweet,  _ shy _ ,” Sakura emphasized because it was rare the other girl spoke, let alone actually raised her voice to a decibel which could be considered  _ yelling.  _ Then there was her  _ thing _ for Naruto, which was crazy since  _ Sasuke _ was obviously better. “I’ll have to ask her about it.”

“I wouldn’t expect much, Sakura-chan, Clan’s keep their cards close to their chest when it comes to techniques and Kekkai Genkai,” one clanless child to another, it was hard to stumble around in a system which made sure that certain people had privileges others didn’t. A system that was  _ built _ to maintain that sort of hierarchy. 

“Oh,” she looked so woefully put out. 

“It doesn’t stop you from asking but be mindful that she won’t be able to go into too much detail,” Minoru quickly rectified with a comforting squeeze of her shoulder. The two quiet as they slid into Ibiki’s office, the man looking up in trepidation at the forms held in Sakura’s hands. 

It was much easier to corner him this way. 

 

* * *

  
  
“Ready or not, here I come!”

...That was what Inoichi came to work to. 

Mozuku and Shinobu were furiously turning the staff room inside out, he could feel their chakra extending- searching for something… or someone seemed more likely. His decision to simply observe was  _ probably _ for the best, leaning against the dented door frame with his coffee in hand, wondering who’d be the first to realize. 

One minute turned into five,  _ then to ten,  _ it was only when they reached the fifteen-minute mark they started to really panic. 

“We can’t have lost-”

“Ibiki will  _ kill  _ us.”

“Why am I gonna kill you  _ today _ , hm?” 

It was said softly, practically a whisper but it made the two of them jump a foot in the air as Ibiki appeared, peering over Inoichi’s shoulder with a nasty smile. 

Inoichi didn’t bat an eyelash at his bosses' appearance, just taking a long sip of his coffee and wondered whether he’d put in sugar or the sweetener his wife insisted was  _ healthier _ for him. 

“Ah, boss!”

“We were just-”

The two talked over one another, falling about with excuses and hand gestures. 

“Sakura-chan, will you come out please?”

 Inoichi decided enough was enough. 

There was a muffled giggle but the girl eventually peeled back her ceiling tile, small head poking out to stare down at the four of them with wide eyes. Her small chakra signature flaring back to life, having been doused enough to be considered a muted background, probably a rat or something of the sort, Inoichi knew it like the back of his hand though. 

No doubt the trick was a gift from Anko. 

Shinobu gaped, jaw dropped to the floor. Mozuku rubbed the back of his neck, watching her with a bewildered stare and a confused -“What even?” - thrown in there. 

“Good job,” Ibiki praised her, the climb down from the ceiling obviously a lot more difficult than how she’d managed to get up there in the first place. Her uniform was askew and laden with dust as she grinned up at them. Mozuku and Shinobu could almost kid themselves that they were in the clear but it was obvious as soon as Sakura’s attention slipped to Inoichi- his glare was cold. “You two,  _ the vault _ .”

“Ibiki-sensei, can you tell me more about the nervous system and pressure points?” Sakura quickly snagged his attention. 

The grin that spread across his cheeks was the thing of nightmares. 

“Sure thing, brat,” Ibiki  _ purred _ . “Mozuku,  _ vault _ . Shinobu, glad to see you volunteered.”

Mozuku felt a little bad for how quickly he left-

-But he wasn’t dumb enough to stick around. 

 

* * *

 

Anko grunted when the wound was wiped clean,  _ a goddamn serrated blade _ , right underneath her ribs.

The in-house medic didn’t bat an eyelid, blissfully indifferent to their patients suffering, such cold detachment, it was almost attractive - then again, that could’ve been the blood loss talking. Still she remained silent as he began to sew her up, refusing his offer of something to bite down on or the numbing chakra. She wanted to be present and clear, the pain was nothing to what she’d experienced. 

It was all just white noise. 

“-go see if Inoichi has anything for you to study up on at home,” she could hear her boss, the eager voice agreeing with him and the tip-tap of gentle footsteps leading away from the room. No doubt he was sending Sakura off for the day, not that she could tell what time it was or how long she’d been there. Instead, her eyes flicked over when he strolled in without an invitation. 

There’s nothing but the sound of her ragged breathing and the drag of thread through flesh. 

“What kind of rookie mistake was it?” 

“He had a serrated blade hidden in his sleeve,” Anko stated, teeth gritted as the medic tied off his stitches. “They didn’t frisk him when they brought him in.”

“You know who it was?”

“No,” but the Hokage would, when Ibiki eventually made his complaint to the higher-ups, he would be demanding a punishment. 

“You know the drill, don’t get it wet for a week or so, don’t break the stitches,” the medic sighed, tidying his equipment away and peeling off his latex gloves. “Please don’t give me another reason to be here for at least a month or two.”

“Aw, c’mon Eisuke - people will start to think you don’t like being down here,” Anko cooed. 

The man blinked. 

“What a shame.”

Anko grinned, leaning on her elbows as he began to leave. “You love me really.”

“ _ Fuck off _ .”

Ibiki watched with reluctant amusement. 

“One day, he’s going to hand in his notice,” not that it would be any time soon, he was one of the few medics who’d stuck around longer than a year. Not many had the stomach to heal up prisoners, knowing that they’d be reduced to the very same state by their own colleagues. It wasn’t in their nature to  _ allow _ people to be hurt. 

“He knows I’d hunt him down.”

Ibiki was quick to get down to business. “What do we know about him?”

“That he likes long walks in the forest and he enjoys a nice cup of tea after his baths.”

“ _ Anko _ .”

“-the prisoner,  _ however _ , hasn’t stated any allegiances. No hitai-ate, no record matching his description in the handbook, a fondness for  _ blades _ ,” there’s a slight hiss as she heaved herself up, not that Ibiki offered to help, he knew she’d bite his head off if he did. “He’s mid-thirties at most, good taijutsu and his explosive tags were... familiar.”

“Are we looking at a group or just him?”

Anko gritted her teeth as she pulled her trench coat back on. 

“I guess we’re going to have to find out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the lovely comments! This took me a while but - finally finished it. And what's this? A hint of an actual plot? I've already written a sort of one-shot for the end of this, with the reactions at the "new" Team 7, since all of them will have grown and benefited from their apprenticeships. I don't know whether to post it now though or wait until this is finished.


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